Catching Our Eye News Roundup, Sept. 29, 2026

Every morning in the Ohio Capital Journal’s free newsletter, The Eye-Opener, we round up the news and commentary from across Ohio and around the country and world that is catching our attention. We call this feature Catching Our Eye, republished here.

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Catching Our Eye

• The Ohio Trump rally and the Haitian student’s funeral. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Patricia Gallagher Newberry reports, “Trump Ohio visit to coincide with funeral for Haitian college student.”

The funeral for a Haitian student who reportedly took his own life will be Oct. 3 in Springfield. Pierre Damas Bel’s death has become a flashpoint in the debate over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

Later on Oct. 3, President Trump is scheduled to attend a political rally about 25 miles away from Springfield.

• Trump dismantling LGBTQ discrimination protections. The Hill reports, “Education Department formally rescinds Title IX protections for LGBTQ students.”

The Education Department announced Monday it has formally rescinded the Biden-era Title IX interpretation that gave sex-based discrimination protections to students on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Schools now must go back to the Title IX code as held under the previous Trump administration in 2020, which the department says will protect women’s sports.

• Standing with Trump on Iran. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Karen Kasler reports, “Ohio’s U.S. senators stand behind Trump on Iran war as high gas prices continue.”

Ohio’s two Republican U.S. Senators are standing behind President Trump when it comes to the war with Iran. This comes as American drivers face high gas prices and record-breaking diesel costs.

Their comments come the same week that they and most other Republican U.S. Senators voted against a resolution to order President Trump to halt the war with Iran.

• Big Crypto and the Ohio US Senate race. Signal Ohio’s Andrew Tobias and Jake Zuckerman report, “‘Big Crypto’ behind critical ads of Sherrod Brown again — without talking crypto.”

For the second time in two years, a deep-pocketed political group backed by the cryptocurrency industry is trying to end Sherrod Brown’s political career.

FairShake PAC announced this week it would spend $30 million on new ads targeting Brown. The group’s financial backers include Ripple Labs, which produces a cryptocurrency used for payments and has given $48 million to the PAC. Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, gave the PAC $25 million, according to Federal Election Commission records.